We are delighted to count Kier as one of our Ambassador partners and – having presented to their team last year – we welcomed Adam Hewitt to the community. His first official Form the Future activity was in January 2024, where he supported students at CAST with Mock Interviews. Here we learn a bit more about him and the best piece of career advice he was ever given.
Name: Adam Hewitt
Job Title: Bid Writer
Organisation: Kier Construction
What other jobs did you do, before this one?
“My first job was holding a sign on the weekends that pointed towards a Subway fast-food restaurant. After doing that for 9 months, I was promoted to working in the restaurant as a ‘Sandwich Artist’. This was during years 11, 12 and 13 of secondary school.
After I finished school, I worked for my dad and uncle for their window cleaning businesses. After about a year, I bought my uncle’s business off him and worked for myself as a window cleaner for 5 years.
In 2019, I sold my business and went to Oxford University to study Philosophy and Theology. I graduated in 2022 and started working for Kier in October of that year.”
Complete this sentence:
“When I was growing up, I wanted to be a scientist, a millionaire, a landlord, or a window cleaner.”
Best piece of career advice you have ever been given?
“Fake it ‘til you make it. Nobody really knows what they’re doing, even if they look like they do.” – Alex Ray (my dad)
When and why did you started volunteering with Form the Future?
“The mock interviews I’m doing in January will be my first event with Form the Future but I volunteer at least once a month with other organisations like Growth Works and STEM ambassadors.
I started doing it because I’ve felt really fortunate with they way my life has panned out and therefore have a sort of moral obligation to help others. Volunteering in schools is one way I can satisfy that obligation. It’s a lot of fun too.”
What’s do you like most about being an Ambassador and/or what keeps you coming back?
“A lot of the kids I interact with are really funny. I keep doing it firstly because I enjoy it and secondly because I think its something I should do.”
How do you know that volunteering with Form the Future makes a real difference to young people (do you have a story you can share, that illustrates this)?
“This story isn’t directly about helping a student into a career they want, but it has stuck with me. When I do careers fairs, I run a house building competition in Minecraft. I give students 5 minutes to build a house with limited resources. The best house at the end of the day wins a bag of sweets. For the last one that I did (at Grater Peterborough UTC), the event organiser emailed me to say that when she took the bag of sweets into the classroom to give to the winner, all his classmates cheered for him. That put a smile on my face.”
Putting aside the benefit to the student, how else has volunteering with Form the Future been a beneficial experience for you?
“It gives me a sense of helping people to achieve the fortunate position that I find myself in, which is something I think I should be doing.”
What would you say to someone who’s wondering whether to sign up as an Ambassador with Form the Future?
“It’s a great laugh and it gets you out of the office for a of couple hours at least!”
We share the Ambassador Spotlight in our monthly Ambassador Update emails, as well as on our website and social platforms. It’s a wonderful way to raise the profile of your own volunteering whilst supporting Form the Future in a new and different way.
If you’d like to feature in our next Ambassador Spotlight, email Dawn, our Ambassador Engagement Manager and she’ll send you questions to respond to.
